Computational Prediction of Drug Cardiac Toxicity

Abstract

This project aims to model, simulate, and ultimately predict the impact of pharmacological compounds on the heart's rhythm using computer models.

This will require advances in mathematical models of individual ion channels, which control how and when cells contract; tissue models, which encapsulate chemical processes and physical relationships at millions of separate points in the heart; and the numerical techniques, which must enable faster-than-real-time simulation of a living heart. By extending the frontiers of "in silico" experimentation, this project will allow to refine, replace and ultimately reduce the use of animals in pharmaceutical and other cardiac research.